What things did you really enjoy but your DC will never get to experience?

[Doubledenimrocks]

Just reminiscing today and thinking about how much I enjoyed the Clothes Show magazine and actually magazines in general. I feel like these are pretty obsolete now and my teens will never have this simple experience.

Same goes for going to the video shop and choosing a film for the night or waiting for the chart show every weekend to record it.

Things are obviously completely different nowadays. What things did you really enjoy that your DC will never experience?

Oh gosh, all of these! We definitely made our own fun, didn't we? If any of us said we were bored, our parents would say only boring people get bored!
I've been known to say the same to my family.
Mum was fearsome about not eating between meals so finding something to do when we were waiting (not really hungry - we were well fed) Supper was same time every day. Mum being home after school. My brother was cross about something and 'left home' aged about six. My parents didn't notice until a neighbour brought him home (he hadn't gone far)
All the books I read and stories I wrote! The patience needed for everything - photos, who was number 1, taping the top 40 on cassettes. Looking forward to the weekly magazine.
Used to help for rides at a local riding school before even a teenager. Knackered, filthy and happy for a 5 minute bareback ride taking ponies to the field.
Happy days!

The yellow pages were big! If you wanted to call someone out, you would go through the yellow pages. You’d have no idea how good they were because you couldn’t see any reviews!
The local telephone directory.. you could look up someone to get their telephone number!

Dito

We moved to a new estate, that was only half built. We used to dig in the sand, see if you could get from front door to back door walking on joists because there is no floor yet.

Getting the putty out of windows before it went hard.

One day we found the builders 'hut' was left unlocked, so we went in, and found a kettle, some mugs and a jar of mustard. Oh and a bunch of keys.

So we locked the door for the builders and hid the keys.

I think perhaps the sense of community and much greater interaction with others.

In the time and place where I grew up, adults had very gender specific roles. The men went out to work and the women stayed home and tended to the house and kids. Most families had only one car (some had none) so the women walked their kids to school and then back home again. The mothers would have great chats with the other women as they walked. On Sundays everyone would meet at mass or on the way to/from mass. Families were much bigger as there was no contraception - there was a family of eight children a few doors away from me, there was a family of seven children living further up the road, my best friend (lived around the corner) is one of seven children etc. Playdates were unheard of - we all played out on the street and knocked for each other. Organised activities weren't such a big thing with the exception of sports (a lot of the lads played football) or girl guides/scouts. My brother played football but he made his own way to football training on Saturday mornings. I'm not sure how he got to matches - maybe they all travelled together on the bus? We sometimes went to the local roller rink or to the swimming pool in summer but we went there by ourselves - it was expected that the older kids would look after the younger kids.

Due to the absence of cars, most of our activity took place in the local community. We shopped in the local shops and were on first name terms with all the shopkeepers. Well, our parents were on first name terms with them. We kids were expected to call them Mr. or Mrs Surname. We might get the bus into town on a Saturday but even then, we'd see our neighbours and classmates on the bus. Birthday parties always took place at home with simple games like Blind Mans' Bluff or Musical Chairs. I have a lot of cousins and we'd meet up at my Granny's house at Christmas or other big occasions. I remember my Granny having a landmark birthday (70 maybe?) and my aunts all made sandwiches and buns and bought Coke and orange for us kids. There was no suggestion that we would go out to a restaurant and celebrate there. In any case, we'd have needed a very big restaurant.

Everything we bought required a shop. Not just groceries but buying clothes or records or electrical items. Even renting a movie meant visiting the video shop. So you had a lot more interaction with other people - the shopkeepers and sometimes other customers. You couldn't text or message your friends so you picked up the phone and rang them (and might have to speak to their parents or another family member in the process).

I'm not looking back with rose tinted glasses. I'm aware that Ireland of the '70s and '80s wasn't a utopia for some sectors of society - single mothers or gay people, for example. The lack of contraception meant that people had much bigger families than they might have chosen and often resulted in poverty. A lot of women endured domestic abuse but had to stay because they had nowhere else to go. There was little or nothing by way of provision (or even recognition) for children with special needs - in my primary school I remember the "slow readers" heading off for a class with a special teacher. They were openly referred to as the "slow readers" by our teacher and she didn't mean it in a nasty way - she said it in a very matter of fact way! But sometimes I feel we have lost a little something along the way and I worry that we're losing the art of communication, with people living in little bubbles and turning to tech instead of other people. And yes, I'm aware of the irony of posting this on social media.

Walnut whips with a walnut in the bottom, and coffee flavoured ones.
Steam trains
£sd - I still have my penny collection, some dating back to the 1850s.

@newtb They still sell those don’t they? Not seen the coffee ones, but have seen the normal ones

My dd is going away with school and they have told them to take a disposable camera. I've says you can only take 20 photos and can't see what they will look like until you're home and we send the film off. Dd asked if she can take selfies. I've said yes but that half of her face may not be in the photo. 😂😂

1/2 p
paper pound notes
top of the pops

Hearing Jack your body by Steve Silk Hurley on news round and the excitement of discovering house music for the fist time.

Watching The Word on Friday nights.